Budget Negotiations Continue; No End in Sight

Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:35 PM CDT

Joan Sanstadt, News Editor

With apologies to readers who are sick and tired of reading about the budget impasse in Madison, conferees from the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led Assembly appear no closer to resolving their differences over the state’s 2007-09 Biennial Budget.

Even changing the landscape, from the state capitol to the executive mansion, brought no final agreement on how the state should spend its money.

Callers and other writers have suggested a wide-ranging list of things that might prod the negotiators into doing their job. Some of the remedies have suggested withholding legislators’ paychecks and per diems until their job is done; another was to ban fundraising activities while the budget is under consideration; and yet another was to lock them up and/or starve them until the budget was agreed upon.

Last week the Wisconsin Hospital Association said it would drop its opposition to the $418 million hospital tax that was in the governor’s budget, with the hope increased federal aid could make up for any shortfall.

The tax on oil companies, proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle, in his budget, is a major sticking point. This tax was estimated to bring in $275 million over the course of the two-year budget.

At least two lawmakers, Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) and Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay) have suggested the budget difficulties just might be because Wisconsin is one of 42 states (according to a national survey) that will have unexpected funds to work with.

Is it because of disagreement over how unexpected money could be spent?

Is it because this is the first time Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit) and Assembly Speaker Michael Huebsch (R-West Salem) have led their respective houses during a budgeting process?

While no one knows for sure, what the major reasons for the lack of a budget are n there are many people n in fact most of the state’s citizens - who will soon be affected by the inability of their elected representatives to reach consensus.

What the fallout will be is anyone’s guess. But voters can have long memories which they may carry with them to the 2008 ballot boxes.

In Washington D.C.

There just may be more movement in legislation at the federal level than there is in Madison these days.

On Oct. 4, the Senate Finance committee approved a tax package that would provide the necessary funding to create a permanent disaster assistance program.

Under current law, disaster assistance is provided on an ad hoc basis n a special appropriation has to be okayed after each disaster. In agriculture, this is usually weather-related and sometimes farmers have to wait for years before getting any benefits. Many cannot wait that long.

Such a permanent disaster safety net was one of the main issues Wisconsin Farmers Union members lobbied members of Congress on when they visited the capitol last month.

U.S. Reps Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.) last week introduced new legislation that would eliminate an inequity in the tax code that requires millions of self-employed individuals to pay additional payroll taxes on the cost of their health insurance.

H.R. 3660 would eliminate a 15.3 percent tax on health insurance premiums for the self-employed. The self-employed are the only segment of the business population that pays this extra tax on health insurance.

Obey’s new book

Congressman Dave Obey (D-Wausau) will be talking about his new book called “Raising Hell for Justice: The Washington Battles of a Heartland Progressive” at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison on Oct. 14.

Obey’s talk is set for 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Overture Center for the Arts Promenade Hall. (The Overture Center is located in the 200 block of State Street.)

In his autobiography, Obey looks back on his journey in politics beginning with his early years in the Wisconsin Legislature, when Wisconsin moved through eras of shifting balance between Republicans and Democrats.

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election in 1969, Obey has gone on to become Wisconsin’s longest-serving member of the U.S. Congress. In 2007 he became chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Obey won the seat, long held by Congressman Melvin Laird, when Laird resigned to become Secretary of Defense in the Nixon Administration.

For more information about the Wisconsin Book Festival that runs from Oct. 10n14, visit http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org.

Venison for food pantries

Meat processors in southwest Wisconsin, working with Southwest Wisconsin Community Action Program (SWCAP), have developed a program to help distribute venison to five food pantries serving Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette and Richland Counties.

The program will start in Iowa County and organizers hope it quickly expands to cover the entire region.

Senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) said the “need for a new venison-to-pantry program arose in the region because the Department of Natural Resources recently announced a cutback in its own food pantry program.”

Citing reduced funding for strategies to combat the Chronic Wasting Disease in the deer herd, the DNR is ending its pantry program in the CWD zones in southwest Wisconsin only. It is continuing the program in the rest of the state.

But the SWCAP organization, its director Wally Orzechowski, staff member Jeff Segebrecht and Jim McCaulley of the Iowa County Land Conservation Department, have developed a pantry plan to serve the region, regardless of the DNR cutbacks.

Schultz hailed the plan as “a great neighbor helping neighbor plan that exemplifies the sense of community that exists in the region.

“The generosity of meat processors, hunters and community members will make this work,” the lawmaker added.

David Ladd, who serves on the Iowa County Land Conservation Committee, told Agri-View “we don’t want to see deer put into dumpsters or go into landfills. We want them tested and when the test is negative (for CWD), we want to make sure the venison gets into the hands of needy families and food pantries.”

To accomplish this goal, the SWCAP has put out a call for help from hunters and community members. Participating meat processors have agreed to process each deer for a $50 fee, which is below their actual cost.

Hunters who wish to donate a deer to the pantry program will be asked to make a tax-deductible contribution of $20 for each deer they donate.

“But we need contributions from the community to cover the $30 balance of the processing cost for each deer donated by hunters,” Orzechowski said. “Contributions to SWCAP are fully tax-deductible, as is the $20 contribution each hunter is being asked for when a deer is donated,” he continued.

Ladd said the Iowa County Land Conservation Department is preparing a $2,500 voucher that will be presented to SWCAP as a donation to help with remaining processing costs of $30 per deer.

For the past few years, under the DNR’s program, food pantries in the region have been able to distribute as much as 55,000 pounds of venison to low income families.

Former dairy farmer Jim McCaulley, who in addition to serving with the Iowa county Land Conservation Department, is also the mayor of Dodgeville, said he is pleased with the pledges and contributions that are already coming in. “But more help is needed,” McCaulley emphasized. Anyone wishing to contribute any amount may send a check made out to Southwest Wisconsin Community Action Program and mail it to 149 N. Iowa St., Dodgeville, WI 53533.

Unclaimed property

Do you or anyone else think you might have unclaimed property that is in the hands of the state treasurer?

If your answer is “maybe” or “I don’t know” you might want follow up with the suggestion offered by Rep. Lee Nerison (R-Westby) to contact the treasurer’s office either by phone or via the Internet.

The value of the unclaimed property held by the state treasurer is approximately $281 million n and that figure is just for southwestern Wisconsin. The “unclaimed” property includes unclaimed savings and checking accounts, child support payments, uncashed dividends, stocks, customer deposits or overpayments, certificates of deposit, credit balances, refunds, matured life insurance policies, uncashed death benefit checks and the contents of safety deposit boxes.

Property is considered “unclaimed” if the financial asset has had no activity by its owner for a period of five years or more and if the holder of the owner has not been able to be contacted by the holder of the asset. “Holders” of these unclaimed assets can include a bank, savings institution, credit union, insurance company, business or utility company.

To find out if you have unclaimed property or to request a claim form, call the office of the State Treasurer at 877-699-9211 or go online to their website at http://www.ost.state.wi.us.

Think government is slow?

Oct. 4 was declared as Wisconsin Unemployment Compensation Day by Gov. Jim Doyle. It marked the seventh anniversary of the state’s first-in-the-nation unemployment insurance program.

Gov. Phil La Follette, the second son of former Wisconsin governor and U.S. Senator “Fighting Bob” La Follette, signed the program into law in 1932.

However, the first benefits were not paid out until four years later when a $15 benefit check was sent to Neils Rudd, a photo engraver who had lost his job. Rudd’s check represented the maximum weekly benefit available at that time. Today that maximum weekly benefit has risen to $355.

The reason it took so long to pay out the first benefit check was because the country was in the throes of the Great Depression and it took that long to collect enough payroll taxes to build the program’s reserve fund.

Today claims are processed a lot faster - and benefit checks are in the mail within seven to ten days from the time the claim is received.

Capitol Notes:

- AB 294 n the Assembly bill that would require electricians to be licensed will have its hearing on Oct. 17, Room 225 Northeast, State Capitol, before the Assembly Committee on Labor and Industry, chaired by Rep. Mark Honadel (R-S. Milwaukee). Rep. Al Ott (R-Forest Junction is the Assembly author of the bill; Senator Russ Decker (D-Schofield) is the author of SB 167, the companion bill in the Senate.

- Siting Board Oct. 19 Meeting Cancelled. The next meeting of the Livestock Facility Siting Review Board is scheduled for Nov. 16. All meetings are held at the DATCP headquarters in Madison and are open to the public.

- David Crass, managing partner of Michael Best & Friedrich’s Madison office and chair of the firm’s agribusiness, food processing and distribution practice group, has been named to serve a four-year term on the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Board of Visitors.

- Anyone planning a trip to Washington D.C. might want to try out the Agraria Restaurant located right on the harbor in Georgetown. The restaurant, which has drawn support from the National Farmers Union and state chapters, features locally-grown food as well as food from specific states. In a word, the food it services is “identifiable.”

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